WikiLeaks Releases the August 30th Draft of the Trans Pacific Partnership Draft Intellectual Property Chapter

Law Professors Call for Public Process for Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) Intellectual Property Chapter

[Sean Flynn] In the midst of the controversy surrounding the release of a Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) negotiating text on intellectual property by Wikileaks yesterday, over 80 law professors of intellectual property law and related disciplines have written to President Obama, Members of Congress and the United States Trade Representative calling for the creation of a public process to vet the TPP’S intellectual property proposals. The letter specifically notes that “even in light of yesterday’s release by WikiLeaks,” public debate on the agreement’s proposals “beyond speculation would be impossible since there has not been any official release of text.” Click here for more.

See also: Japanese translation by Prof. Ryo Shimanami

English Translation of the New Version of Brazil’s Marco Civil

Thanks to Carolina Rossini for sending an English translation of the new version of Brazil’s Marco Civil legislation. Rossini, writes that the new version of the text “has received great support from Brazilian civil society and has also gathered great (but not yet enough) support from legislators.” Click here for the translation.

Creative Commons Relaunched In India; Key Highlights

[NT Balanarayan] Creative Commons (CC), a nonprofit organisation that enables the sharing and use of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools, has relaunched its India chapter… Creative Commons India chapter is made up of three organisations — Wikimedia India, Centre for Internet and Society and Acharya Narendra Dev College.  Lawrence Liang, Co-founder of Alternative Law Forum said that the biggest difference this time around is that Creative Commons has been tailor-made for India law. If someone approaches a court about some information that is licensed under CC, it would be in compliance with the Indian Copyright Act. India does not have derivative rights like in US, so CC will try to bring some clarity on that front. The chapter’s goals will be raising awareness on licenses and open education resources, connecting with photography communities, content donation and participating in affiliate network. Click here for the full story on Medianama.

Creative Commons U.S.A. Applauds the Introduction of the Affordable College Textbook Act

[Creative Commons USA] Senators Dick Durbin and Al Franken today introduced the Affordable College Textbook Act, which directs the Secretary of Education to fund the creation of college textbooks and materials to be made available under open licenses.  The licenses will allow students and educators to “access, reproduce, publicly perform, publicly display, adapt, distribute, and otherwise use the work and adaptations of the work for any purpose, conditioned only on the requirement that attribution be given to authors as designated.” Creative Commons U.S.A. Director Michael Carroll issued the following statement: “Senator Durbin should be congratulated for his leadership…” Click here for more.

Department of Commerce Posts Comments on Its Green Paper Copyright Policy, Creativity, and Innovation in the Digital Economy

[Mike Palmedo] Last week, 78 stakeholders submitted comments to the Department of Commerce on policy raised in its recent Green paper Copyright Policy, Creativity, and Innovation in the Digital Economy. The green paper was written by Commerce’s Internet Policy Taskforce, created “to provide policy coordination across the Department of Commerce, and to conduct initially a comprehensive review of privacy policy, copyright, global free flow of information, and cybersecurity, and their respective relationships to innovation in the Internet economy.” Click here for more.

Failure of “Licenses for Europe” underlines the need for reform of the EU copyright framework

[Centrum Cyfrowe, EDRi, and the Kennisland, Modern Poland Foundation] Today, the Licenses for Europe experiment comes to an end. This initiative, launched almost a year ago was ostensibly an attempt to ‘explore the potential and limits of innovative licensing and technological solutions in making EU copyright law and practice fit for the digital age’. At the end of this process we are compelled to conclude that 10 months of meetings have largely failed to identify any solutions which can be backed by all, or even the majority of, stakeholders involved. It is evident that there is very little consensus among stakeholders about the appropriate approach to making EU copyright law and practice fit for the digital age. It is unclear as to how licensing solutions can provide a significant improvement to a copyright system that has been widely recognised as being inefficient and out of date. Click here for more.

Google Books Opinion Is a Win for Fair Use and Permissionless Innovation

[Ali Sternburg] Today, the long-awaited Google Books opinion is out. And it’s a winner. The New York district court dismissed the case, writing that “Goggle’s [sic] motion for summary judgment is granted and plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment is denied.” Although the failure of a federal class action in this case caused the potential mammoth settlement to fall apart, the outcome has been a far stronger validation of the copyright fair use doctrine than any settlement could be. Click here for the full post on DisCo.